California’s high-speed rail plan received a boost in federal funding Monday when it was awarded $300 million for the initial phase of the project, the construction of more than 100 miles of track in the Central Valley.

Despite the one-time allotment of federal funding, state officials still need about $14 billion from Uncle Sam to complete the 520-mile line from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded $2.02 billion in high-speed funds Monday to 15 states and Amtrak for 22 high-speed intercity passenger rail projects. Twenty-four states, the District of Columbia and Amtrak submitted nearly 100 applications for their share of the $2 billion in federal funds that became available after Florida scrapped plans for its own bullet train project.

The $300 million earmarked for California hardly makes up for the $2.5 billion that was cut in April from the federal budget in a last-second deal reached to avoid a government shutdown. That move erased all subsidies for local high-speed rail projects.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the awards this morning in a news release, calling the winning projects “part of a nationwide network that will connect 80 percent of Americans to high-speed rail in 25 years.”

So far, California has $6.33 billion needed for the $43 billion project, according to the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

“It is a testament to the strength of California’s project that we have won 40 percent of every federal dollar awarded for the development of high-speed rail,” Curt Pringle, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said in a news release. “In the past 15 months we have won the lion’s share of federal dollars, unlocked state bond funds and began engaging the private sector to secure their future participation, so that we can begin construction and begin creating thousands of quality jobs next year.”

State officials are still preparing to break ground in the Central Valley next year using previous federal funds that will vanish if California does not begin construction by fall 2012.

The money earmarked for California will extend the initial Central Valley construction segment north toward Merced, funding the track and civil work from Fresno to the junction near Chowchilla, which will provide a connection to San Jose and San Francisco to the west and Merced and ultimately Sacramento to the north.

Project engineers are trying to determine exactly how far this additional federal funding, combined with the 20 percent state match pledged by the high-speed rail authority, will extend construction on the initial Central Valley segment. That section is considered the critical “backbone” of the statewide system where high-speed trains will travel at 220 miles per hour and connect Northern to Southern California.

The Central Valley project is considered the backbone of the Los Angeles to San Francisco corridor. But after that initial stretch is complete, officials fear the tracks could sit unused for years as the state tries to fund the rest of the line.

The state still must find money to extend the project into the Bay Area — where the tracks would run along the Caltrain line between San Francisco and San Jose — and Southern California.

Mark Gomez has worked for the Mercury News since 1992, including the past ten years as a reporter on the breaking news/public safety team. He is a South Bay native and graduate of San Jose State University.

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